"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."Edmund Burke(1729 – 1797)Proof that being "Conservative" wasn't always a bad thing.....

There has been a great deal of discussion elsewhere on that point - the problem seems to be that medieval writers used the term for "parsnip" to mean either parsnip or carrot, so it is difficult to be sure exactly what they mean. Old English used the same word for both, while medieval writers had two distinct Latin terms, but seem to have used them randomly.

We know that in 795 AD, Charlemagne issued the edict "Capitulare de villis vel curtis imperii" or "Capitulare de villis", which states:

Ninth and tenth century finds in Yorvik show evidence of carrots, parsnips and turnips. By the 12th century, English herbals included descriptions of herba pastinaca, accompanied by illustrations of orange carrots, with a text that gives an idea of the taste together with medicinal applications (such as toothache). By 1350 it is known from archaeological evidence that a variety of vegetables, both grown in gardens and gathered in the wild in the British Isles were being consumed. Vegetables known from Jorvík (modern York) and Dublin include carrots, parsnips, turnips, celery, spinach, wild celery, cabbage, radishes, fava beans and peas.

So the Franks were growing and chomping on carrots in the 8th century - after that the story is slightly foggy, but on balance I would opt for carrots of some kind (wild or cultivated) throughout the medieval period.

Wild carrots are native to the UK and are edible but only when young, becoming very woody as they mature. The domestic carrot is a genetic variant, not derived from the wild carrot but parallel to it.

I guess that some historians have failed to spot the confusion of terms (carrot versus parsnip) or simply haven't done enough research. There are some wonderful recipes involving carrots in the French Le Ménagier de Paris of 1393 and in the English Forme of Cury of about the same period, so it is difficult to support the idea that there were no carrots at all until the 15th century.

There's also the often stated claim that 'Your carrots are the wrong colour' when cooking orange carrots on the LH (One for the 're-enactorism' thread?) when, as Brother Ranulph has pointed out, there are illustrations of orange carrots in Europe as far back as the 12th Century. The theory that the orange carrot was developed in the low countries as a tribute to the Prince of Orange has also been discounted although the popularity of the 'modern' true breeding and heavy cropping strains we are now familiar with are derived from the carrots developed at this time. I'm begining to believe that the purple strains of carrot, often held up as the predeccesor of the modern orange varieties, are the incorrect one for England and Western Europe as these are derived from Eastern and Middle Eastern strains. All I can find suggests that carrots in Western Europe were normally yellow, white or pale orange. (This may explain the confusion with Parsnips as the two unrelated vegetables do look very similar in these colours.)

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."Edmund Burke(1729 – 1797)Proof that being "Conservative" wasn't always a bad thing.....

Brother Ranulf wrote:Old English used the same word for both, while medieval writers had two distinct Latin terms, but seem to have used them randomly.

Brother Ranulf wrote:There are some wonderful recipes involving carrots in the French Le Ménagier de Paris of 1393 and in the English Forme of Cury of about the same period, so it is difficult to support the idea that there were no carrots at all until the 15th century.

Presumably, I'm missing something. How do you know that the recipes mean carrots, given axiom #1?

Sorry for the confusion, I should have clarified but was cautious about rambling on too long.

In the Parisian book, the roots are described as red, which rules out parsnips - they are sold by the basketload, each costing one blanc (equivalent to about six English pence) and about half the price of a chicken. The term used is garroites, not a word that occurs in Anglo-Norman French.

The recipe in A Forme of Cury mentions "pasternak of rafens . . .", which distinguishes it from standard pasternak, thought to usually refer to parsnips.

Seeds for white and purple carrots are available from a company called Real Seeds. They're grown in the garden at West Stow Saxon village but not together or they hybridise and you end up with orange carrots. I gather it's easy to seed save

There's a company called Real Seeds who sell white and purple carrot seeds

Apparently you can dry carrots by putting them in a very low (as low as it will go) oven for between six and eight hours on a rack with the carrots not touching each other. I suspect this only preserves them for a few months not indefinitely

Purple, orange, white, yellow,amber and cream are the different varieties of carrot.Until the 16th century carrots were generally purple or yellow before orange became the dominant color. The white and yellow ones are slightly sweeter and crunchier than the orange variety .

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."Edmund Burke(1729 – 1797)Proof that being "Conservative" wasn't always a bad thing.....